RDF Life, The Tiger Chronicles
by weebee
Summary: Sequel to RDF Life. The first chapter is chapter 15 of the other fic, so I'm including chapter 2 as new material. You MUST have read the first fic before this one.
1. Chapter 1, Grey 33 is Missing

RDF Life, The Tiger Chronicles.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma, nor the bits of Robotech continuity I am nicking for this story.

Warning: This is the sequel story to another fic of mine, called RDF Life. It wasn't a terribly great fic, but knowledge of what happened in it is neccessary for comprehension of this one.

One other note.. This fanfic will not even ATTEMPT to follow Robotech continuity. The technology and events are a hodgepodge of Robotech and Macross elements, and the events are going to be at least semi-original. You have been warned.

Now, I shall shut up. On with the show.

Chapter 1, Grey 33 is missing.

The afternoon sky was clear, as the birds flew gracefully through the air. Their quiet and un-hurried flight was interrupted, however, when a high pitched whining sound pierced the air. Several of them swooped around to see what the disturbance was, but could see nothing. This was unsurprising, as that shrill whine was coming from several Kilometers away. Even so, it was closing fast and getting louder.

All of the avians in the area quickly decided that sticking around was a bad idea, just before a sleek, silver colored dart rocketed through where they had been at close to the speed of sound. Unfortunately, they weren't quite fast enough, as the quickly moving craft soon broke the sound barrier, letting off a sonic boom that sent many of them careening out of control.

Inside of the Veritech, its pilot was hidden behind a heavier than normal flight helmet and combat suit, making their face and figure hard to make out. "Genesis to control, YF-11 seems to be performing well." He said, sounding bored. "It looks like the modifications to the reflex engines are holding."

A few seconds later, the aircraft's radio crackled to life. "Control here, Affirmative Genesis. Procede with rapid maneuvering sequence.."

The figure nodded, and seemed to gain a little enthusiasm. "Roger that, beginning the next stage." He said, pulling back slowly on the stick and hitting one of the foot pedals. As he did so, the small plane nosed up and to the left, going through a long, slow loop. Breaking off half way through, it swept back the other way slightly more quickly.

HR.

In an observation building on the ground, several people sat studying consoles. In the middle of them, RDF captain Roy Fokker stood, watching a camera that was focused on the fighter above. He'd been the commander of the RDF's testing facilities in Hokkaido for over ten years, ever since he'd finally been permanently taken off the flight line, and his graying hair showed it. Still, sometimes he couldn't help but feel a little jealous when he saw someone take a Veritech up for testing. "How's it doing?" He asked, looking over at someone who was monitoring the stress levels on the airframe of the new fighter.

"She's holding together, sir. Everything's within parameters." The subordinate reported, calmly.

Roy nodded. "Good. At least this time its engines didn't fail on takeoff." Around him, several people held back soft chuckles, until he walked over to a microphone that was sitting on the console in the front of the room and picked it up. "Okay kid, let's open it up."

"You've got it, control." The pilot's voice came through, noticeably annoyed. "And it's been over twenty years, ya think you could stop callin me that?"

Roy smirked. "Afraid not, Genesis." He said, before setting the Mic back down and watching in approval as the plane went through several more complex maneuvers, including switching the machine through all three of its combat modes several times. The tech who was looking over the machine's stress levels was looking pretty stressed himself by the end of it, but nothing truly bad had happened, in-spite of the pilot's seeming best efforts to cause the plane to disintegrate.

After another ten minutes of high speed maneuvering, Roy nodded. "Okay, call him back." He said, shortly, before walking out of the room.

HR.

As the pilot of the test aircraft brought it to a slow stop, he saw that Captain Fokker was waiting for him on the edge of the runway. Smiling inside of his helmet, he ran through the Veritech's pre-shutdown checklist, before popping the canopy and jumping from the edge of the cockpit to the ground in one movement.

"Showoff." Roy muttered, just loud enough for the pilot to hear as he removed his helmet.

Ranma Hayes grinned back at him, still looking startlingly like he had when the two had first met. "Aw, you're just mad 'cuz ya can't do it anymore." He gibed, casually.

"Be careful, I still out-rank you, Lieutenant Commander." Roy joked back, the two men walking slowly back to the testing range's main building. "So, how does the new 11 series handle?"

Ranma inclined his head to the side a little. "I'd still much rather have my VF-4R." He said, simply. Seeing Roy's annoyed look, he continued. "But it's passable."

Roy sighed. "Come on kid, I'll buy you a drink and we can go file the reports." He said, shaking his head.

"Can't." Ranma said. "Going to spar with Ryoga later."

"Oh yeah, you have to make sure to stay ahead of him, eh?" Roy said, understanding.

Ranma grumbled. Though his Chi control had been greatly increased through his piloting of Veritechs, Ryoga had been busy with his own unique brand of training while doing his duties as a spacecraft engineer. That of course, meant that he'd been busy carrying incredibly heavy loads and getting hit by things that men weren't meant to survive.

"He just got a lucky shot last time, that's all." Ranma complained. Though this was the truth, the lost boy had managed to dislodge a very large rock with one of his breaking point strikes accidentally, it still sounded like a defeated fighter trying to cover for his pride.

Roy just snickered. "Yeah, sure kid." He said, casually. "I still want that report by tomorrow morning, though."

"I'll get it to you." Ranma said, waving it off and heading off. He truly hated paper work.

HR.

Admiral Ben Dixon looked levelly at the person on the other side of the table from him. This was, quite possibly, his worst nightmare come true. "No." He said, simply.

"Why not?" She demanded, angrily. "I've passed all of the qualification tests, I've gotten my wings… what do you want? You know what this mission is going to do, and you know I have the scores to entitle me to go on it."

Ben rubbed his forehead. "Dana…" He started, slowly.

"I know why you don't want me on it, you think I can't handle it, don't you?" She asked.

"That's not.." Ben started, before shaking his head. "I promised Max that I'd look after you, and…"

"And what?" She asked. "I've got the qualifications for the post, The ship's CAG approved me, and then I'm shut down by a 'request' from the admiralty! I've got a right to do this, and you know it!"

"Lieutenant, I suggest you remember who you're talking to." Ben said, desperately trying to dodge the issue by pulling rank.

"I'm talking to someone who pulled me off an assignment for purely personal reasons, which he can't possibly justify to the rest of the RDF's top brass if I push this, which I will." She said, glaring into his eyes angrily.

He chuckled, though it sounded slightly bitter. "You're exactly like your mother, you know that?" He commented, softly. "I suppose it was inevitable that you'd want to be on the mission to find the Expeditionary Force. I will revoke my objection."

"Thank you." Dana said, nodding. "…and I'm sorry about the desk." Ben only nodded back as she turned around and left, pretending not to notice the papers that she'd scattered around when she'd marched into his office angrily.

After she'd left the room and closed the door quietly, he sighed and leaned back. Now what was he supposed to do? When Max had left his daughter with him before departing for the Tyrol Expedition, he'd made him promise to look after the girl until he got back. That, of course, wasn't supposed to be for most of her life, but since the small Zentraedi ship and her escorts had vanished off of the face of known space, that was what it had turned into.

Now, though, he couldn't exactly protect her. She was going to be aboard the ship that was going after the missing exploration vessel, and he had important responsibilities on earth to take care of.

As he thought of that, he glanced over to the side to see one of the several pictures he kept on the side of the desk. One was of Dana, and another was of his family, before they'd been killed by the earth bombardment. The last was a picture of the Wild Horses, right before the squadron was disbanded. Now, everyone in the squad had gone their own way. Max was gone, and most of flight two had dispersed over the planet somewhere. His eyes returned to the middle of the picture, where Ranma grinned back at him.

'Well, if I can't go, he's the closest thing I've got.' He thought, pondering. 'Plus, I'd bet he wants an excuse to be on that ship.' Smirking, he picked up a telephone and started dialing.

HR.

"Hey, Nabiki." Ranma said, walking into the central RDF Records office. "Got the final report on the VF-11 upgrades for you."

"Great." Nabiki Tendo said, wheeling her way over to her old friend. "Today was getting boring."

Ranma shrugged. "Still don't get how you can like being a glorified file clerk so much." He muttered, as she took the papers from him and guided her motorized wheel chair back to her desk.

"Why Ranma-kun, it's because I get access to all this neat information." She said, sweetly. "Plus, I get paid a lot."

"Shoulda figured." Ranma said, sighing. "You got the latest report on that new project? Lisa wants it."

Nabiki nodded, typing something in on the computer terminal at her desk and grinning. "Still can't say the name of the ship, huh?" She asked, smirking as she waited for the machine to finish processing.

Ranma just grumbled a bit, and, after several things had happened that he couldn't quite follow, a small disk popped out of a slot on the computer and Nabiki handed it over. "So, the flight's only a week away." She said, casually.

Ranma stiffened. "Yeah." He said, shortly.

"Did I hit a nerve?" The Tendo woman asked, her smirk decreasing slightly. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

Ranma didn't say anything, simply leaving. "Hmph, he's still as rude as ever." Nabiki said, though she supposed she couldn't blame him for his reaction. Kasumi was in a similar state, since Tofu had been assigned as the ship's medical officer.

It was at times like this when she was glad she hadn't gotten married. As she thought this, her phone rang. "Hello, Records, what can I… Admiral Dixon?"

HR.

Several hours later, Ranma dragged himself into the small apartment that he and Lisa shared, his body covered in bruises. Flicking the front hall light on, he dug the disk he'd brought for his wife out of one pocket, dropping it on a small wooden table.

After doing that, he staggered the rest of the way in, slumping on the couch.

Leaning back, he stared up at the ceiling. "Beat him this time." He muttered, happily.

"So that's what happened to you." Came a woman's voice, causing Ranma to raise his head. His wife was standing in the door to the kitchen, still wearing her RDF Captain's uniform. "Given how you look, I'd hate to see the other guy."

Ranma laughed. "I think Minmei wants to kill me." He confided, simply.

"Just a second, I'll go get the first aid kit." Lisa replied, sighing. As she walked back into the kitchen, she looked back. "Did you get the new Veritech tested before you went to beat up Ryoga?"

"Yeah." He said. "It's not a bad design to have loaded on the ship, I guess."

"Good." Lisa said, returning to the front room with the first-aid kit. "That makes me much more confident of our fighter squadrons."

"Yeah, well they won't do much good if they go through with putting all green pilots aboard." Ranma snapped back, angrily.

"Not my idea." Lisa replied, as she began cleaning several of the cuts on Ranma's face and arms.

"I know." He grumbled. "I just wish I could go with you."

Lisa smiled. "We both know you're only still allowed to test-pilot due to a loop-hole in the rules, they won't let you back on the flight line. You would go crazy as a passenger on a trip like that."

"Yeah, I know." Ranma admitted, "But I'm thinking about doin it anyhow."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're really sweet when you're not being a jerk?" Lisa asked, grinning down at him.

"Hmm, I think so." Ranma replied, grinning back. The two moved in for a kiss, before they were interrupted by the sound of the phone next to the couch ringing. "Damn." Ranma muttered.

"We'll finish this later." Lisa said, getting up and quickly retrieving the handset. "Hello?" She asked, sounding slightly annoyed. "Oh, hi Ben. Yes, he's here." Looking at Ranma questioningly, she held out the phone.

The martial artist reluctantly took it, holding it up to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Ranma, I wanted to talk to you about something." Ben said, getting straight to the point.

"Yeah, I'd figured that's why you called." Ranma replied, annoyed. "What's goin on?"

"Well, um, I don't want to talk about it over the phone." Ben continued, and then the phone moved as if he'd taken it away from his ear for a second. When he put it back, he spoke quickly. "Can you meet me at the café near the base tomorrow?"

"Erm," Ranma said, surprised. "Yeah, I guess."

"Thanks, that's great. Good bye!" Ben said, and then the phone went dead.

"Damn, that was weird." Ranma muttered, hanging up the phone. "I guess I'll find out what he wants tomorrow." Getting up, he headed for the kitchen. "So, who's cooking tonight?"

Lisa just laughed. 'Figures he'd forget what we were doing in favor of food.' She thought, before following him into the kitchen.

HR.

The next day, Ranma walked down a street in New Macross City, headed towards the massive form of the SDF-1 that rested on a hill above it. The ship had been landed there about fifteen years before and hadn't moved since, though Ryoga insisted that she'd fly just as well as ever if she was needed. He wasn't going there, but to a café nearby. The place was named the Cat Café, though he'd checked and made sure that there were no amazons involved. It was a pretty safe bet, since they mostly served different types of coffee and a very few food items.

As he walked into the Café's doors, he saw that Ben was already sitting there, not wearing his usual RDF Uniform, but a casual suit.

"Any reason you don't have the rank pips on today, Ben?" Ranma asked, slipping into the seat across from him.

"I didn't want Dana following me." The man said, quickly.

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "And why, exactly, didn't you want Dana following you?" He drawled.

"Well," Ben started, before explaining the girl's desire to go aboard the ship that was assigned to try and find the Expeditionary Force. While he'd talked, a waiter had come and taken their orders. He'd gotten a cup of extra strong black coffee, while Ranma just got water.

"Okay, so I don't see the problem." Ranma said, sipping at his water. "She wants to go on the mission, and has the clearance to do it. Why'd you call me?"

Ben sighed. "I'm worried about her safety." He said, bluntly. "You know what happened before, and…"

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. "Ya mind not talkkin like that about a ship that's got my wife on it?" He growled, angrily.

Ben waved a hand. "Hey, I didn't mean that. Look, I've got a way for you to go aboard the Tiger, and I want you to help out with looking after Dana while you're there."

"You know how to get me aboard the ship?" Ranma asked, leaning forward and brutally supressing a flinch. The Tiger was one of the UN Spacy's new Liger Class Battlecruisers, and it, along with two ARMD class carriers, were going to be leaving orbit later in the week.

. He knew that he was technically too old to be an active member of the RDF's airforce, and that he was only test-piloting because that position had different entrance requirements. Test pilots merely had to pass a physical every year to stay in service. "So, how do I do it?"

"Well…" Ben said, knowing that Ranma wasn't going to like the next part. "You're pretty well known , especially to pilots, but.." As he said this, he reached out a hand quickly and knocked over Ranma's water glass. As usual, the contents found the Jusenkyo victim, changing him into her. "YOU aren't."

"What'd you do that for?" Ranma asked, glaring at her old friend angrily.

"Simple." Ben said, smiling. "We register you as a pilot, and give you command over Dana's squadron. That way, you can go on the mission and help watch her at the same time."

Ranma was about to start complaining about how stupid that idea was, when she thought about it. Quite frankly, it could work. Most people didn't believe the story of the curse, and she'd been mistaken for his and Lisa's own daughter enough times. "This is gunna mean I'm gunna have to stay a girl mosta the time, ain't it?" She said, sighing.

She'd had the curse for a LONG time by this point, and it wasn't likely to go away, especially since Jusenkyo had been atomized by the Zentraedi bombardment, but this trip was going to take a minimum of six months, and probably more.

"Afraid so." Ben said. "So, will you do it?"

Ranma contemplated for a moment. She HAD said that she'd be willing to go the whole trip with absolutely no productive activity the day before, and this was a marked improvement over that. Besides, Lisa was going to be on the ship, and she'd feel much better if she was there. "Fine." She said. "Though you do realize, if you're caught, we're both gunna be stripped of rank for this."

Admiral Ben Dixon nodded. "Yup." He said, simply.

END.


	2. Chapter 2, Launch Day, Part 1

As promised, here is chapter 2. This one is all new material. THe first chapter only had miner modifications from RDF Life 15. Enjoy, folks!

Chapter 2, Launch Day: Part 1.

"Ranma, are you in here?" Lisa Hayes called, slowly cracking open the door to her and her husband's bedroom. She only had a couple of hours before her shuttle into orbit was to leave, and she'd wanted to say goodbye to him first.

"He's probably at the base again." She muttered, frowning. It had seemed that, ever since Ranma had gone to talk to Ben, he'd been avoiding her. She'd tried to ask Ben what was going on, but he was unusually tight lipped. At this point, she was considering going to Nabiki for the information, but didn't really want to intrude on whatever Ranma was doing to that extent.

Turning from her bedroom and back into the main room, the woman caught her own reflection in a mirror. She was wearing her full dress uniform, including cap, for the launching ceremony in about six hours. Huffing and brushing some of the brown hair out of her eyes, she vowed that she'd have to have a long, annoyed talk with Ranma the next time she saw him.

HR.

"How, exactly, did Ben talk me into this?" Ranma grumbled, tugging at the collar of her dress uniform. She didn't really mind dress uniforms, or at least not the male one, but this was distinctly uncomfortable. She turned a baleful look towards her skirt and bare legs, before she was interrupted.

"You get to go on the mission with Captain Hayes, remember?" Nabiki Tendo said, sighing. "We've been over this before, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Ranma conceded, nodding and turning to look across the massive space that was the New Macross City space port. "So, do you have the paper work and stuff?"

Nabiki smiled, producing a small manila folder from a pouch on the side of her chair and handing it to the redhead. "Here it is." She said, before digging into her pocket and retrieving a set of silver rank pips. "Also, you've been demoted."

Ranma nodded, taking the two Lt. First Class rank insignia and replacing the Lieutenant Commander's pips she'd been wearing. "Look, Nabiki, thanks a lot." She said, finally."

"I'd thank Kasumi, too." Nabiki commented, smirking evilly and not elaborating. "Plus, you should see what Ben's giving up in exchange."

"You aren't takin him for much, are ya?" Ranma asked, suddenly worried.

"Well, it is a nice restaurant." Nabiki said, contemplative, before turning away and rolling off towards the front entrance.

"Restaurant…?" Ranma muttered, as the port's public address system crackled to life. "All passengers for shuttle flight 214 to the L-2 orbital yards, boarding now."

The redhead sighed. "Well, that's my flight." She mumbled, re-settling her old traveling pack on her back.

HR.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Dana muttered, as she bumped into the third person so far. For the second time, she cursed herself for being late, though she was pretty sure her godfather had something to do with all of the bad luck she'd been having today. At least, it wasn't normal for three public transit busses that were half full of people to completely ignore you, at least not in New Macross City. Looking around the crowded inside of the transport shuttle, she saw that most of its seats were already full, aside from a few near the back.

She'd really wanted to get a seat near the windows, so that she could get a look at the ship where she'd be serving before docking, but shrugged this minor disappointment off as she snaked her way through the rows. The seat she finally chose to take was close to a window, only one seat away. In that other seat was a red haired girl, looking about her own age, who was busily reading what looked like several sets of personal files.

"You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" Dana asked, slipping in next to the redhead.

"Huh?" The other girl asked, looking up from her files for a second. "Oh, no problem." She mumbled.

Dana sighed. THIS was going to be a fun trip. She would have liked to travel with a few people she knew, but unfortunately most of her class had opted to join the earth's main defense force, the Army of the Southern Cross, rather than the newly formed RDF Expedition.

As she settled into place and put her luggage under her seat, Dana leaned back. The flight from earth to L-2, where the orbital shipyard was, would take a few hours to complete even at the speeds the shuttle could achieve in space.

HR.

About forty five minutes later, Dana was officially bored. The ship had exited the planet's atmosphere a good twenty minutes earlier, and watching the stars pass had lost what little novelty it had after a few minutes. After all, she'd practically been born in space.

Turning to the side, she saw that her red haired companion was still engrossed in reading her files. "Erm, excuse me, but what are you reading?" She asked, conversationally.

When the redhead didn't answer, she reached out and tapped on her shoulder gently. Much to Dana's astonishment, the redhead gasped in surprise. "Huh? Gah? Wha?" She asked, letting the papers fall and revealing blurred blue eyes. "We under attack or somethin?"

Dana actually let off a small giggle at that comment. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were asleep." She said, apologetically. "Sorry for waking you."

"Oh, it's all right." The redhead responded, shaking her head clear. "I should be studyin these papers, anyhow. It just got kinda boring."

Dana nodded. "I know what you mean. I'm Dana Sterling, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Wow, she looks different." The redhead muttered, apparently thinking that Dana hadn't heard her. Ranma had only ever met the girl a couple of times, and they'd been several years ago. For one, her hair hadn't been dyed blonde back then.

"I look different?" Dana asked, raising an eyebrow. "I… don't think we've met."

"Oh, you look different from… um…. Your profile" The redhead temporized, rummaging through the bunch of papers she had and handing one over. Sure enough, it was Dana's flight school profile, with a picture of her on the top left corner.

"You've been reading personnel profiles?" Dana asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just for my squadron." The redhead explained, hurriedly.

"You've got the squadron assignments?" Dana asked, excitedly. "Can I have a look?" Realizing that she might be being a little pushy, she quickly added, "If you don't mind."

The redhead shrugged, handing over several documents. Dana assumed that the ones she'd kept a hold of were her own transfer orders. Rustling through the documents eagerly, the first one Dana checked was that of the person next to her. She hadn't asked her name, after all.

After reading it over, she'd learned one important thing. The girl's name was "Ranko Tendo," and she was apparently Dana's commanding officer. This was a bad thing, as she'd apparently been bugging her flight leader for the past few minutes, and the other girl hadn't thought to stop her. It was odd, though. She looked a lot younger than the 21 years of age that was written on the paper.

She looked to the side, noting that Lt. Tendo had fallen asleep again. Deciding that she didn't want to dig herself in deeper, she decided to go back to reading and leave her alone for the rest of the trip.

HR.

A little over two hours later, the transport shuttle came into visual range of the shipyards, and the ships that were floating around them. By this time, Ranma had woken up again, and was looking out the window. Dana was content with watching a video feed that had been displayed on the front wall of the cabin as the shuttle slowly approached one of the dots that were the floating ships.

As it coasted in, breaking thrusters starting to engage and attitude control rockets firing, the pin point seemed to rapidly expand, taking on a rectangular shape. She couldn't make out the name written on the hull from this great a distance, but Ranma knew that it was the ARMD space carrier Ayanami. It, along with another carrier called the Soryu, were Lisa's ship's main support craft, meant to be docked to the larger ship during flight.

The ARMD wasn't the prettiest sight in space, mostly looking like a flying light grey brick with a black painted top, but it served its purpose well enough.

Only minutes after the big ship had come into view, the shuttle made its landing in one of its hanger bays with a soft thump. Ranma sighed in relief, prompting a response from Dana.

"Are you all right, Ma'am?" The blonde haired girl asked, concerned.

Ranma frowned. She would have to get used to that, she supposed, but back in the days of the first Robotech war she would have had anyone who called her 'Ma'am' flying extra patrol duty for a week. "I'm fine." She said, shortly. "Always makes me kinda nervous when we're landin on a space carrier and I'm not the one flying the ship, that's all."

Dana just laughed. Her CO. seemed to have a sense of humor, and hadn't held her earlier interruption against her. That would definitely make this assignment easier. "We'll get our chance to fly soon enough, right?" She asked, excitedly.

"Well, I think we've got a training patrol tomorrow." Ranma responded, digging through her mind for the schedule of shakedowns for the Tiger and her support craft.

Dana nodded, satisfied, as the shuttle completely stopped, and all of its loading doors opened. "It was good meeting you, Ma'am." She said, nodding and picking up her bags before walking off.

"You too." Ranma mumbled. Truthfully, she didn't want to deal with Dana yet, since she was one of the few people on the ship that couldn't find out about who she really was. If she did, Ben would drop his support from this little operation, and she'd be left on earth. 'Just a couple more days.' She thought. 'Then we'll be outta the system.'

HR.

"Where the hell is he?" Lisa demanded, angrily, as she paced around the confines of her room aboard the transport that was going to bring her to her new ship. She'd thought it odd that Ranma hadn't been there to see her off, but she'd left a message with their home comm, and he still hadn't responded.

"You know Ranma, he probably got to doing something and forgot." Roy Fokker said, leaning against the bulkhead near the door. "He'll call you when he gets the message, trust me."

Lisa sighed, looking over at her first officer. "Thanks, commander." She muttered. "Inconsiderate jerk." She continued, under her breath.

"Well, you knew that when you married the kid, didn't you?" Roy asked, a teasing smirk dominating his slightly wrinkled face.

Lisa couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Yeah, guess I did." She said, right before the computer on her desk gave a low chime. She moved over to it instantly, tapping a few controls. "Yes, what is it?" She asked, hurriedly.

"We've got a communication coming through for you, captain. Sender is identified as R. Hayes."

"Put it through here." Lisa said, sighing in relief.

Almost immediately, the screen blinked and revealed Ranma, in his cursed form, silhouetted against a drab grey backdrop. "Hey, Lisa." She said, smiling.

"How come it took you so long to call me back?" Lisa demanded, though she was smiling back very slightly.

"Well, I sorta forgot and got to doing something." Ranma admitted. This wasn't really the truth, as she'd actually planned on calling Lisa during the shuttle flight before Dana had sat next to her. "I'm calling now, though. Took me long enough to find out where you were."

"Well, where are you? And why are you a girl?" Lisa asked.

"Erm, that's a long story." Ranma said, nervously. "I'll explain it later. I just called to tell ya that I'm gunna come up and visit you when you come aboard the T…. that ship, okay?" The redhead said, rushing hurriedly.

"Ranma, wait…" Lisa started.

"Oh, can't talk. I love you, good bye!" Ranma said, cutting off the signal.

Lisa's eye twitched. There was definitely something going on here, and she wasn't sure she liked where it was going.

At his post next to the door, Roy was busy snickering again.

"Would you stop that and go do your job?" Lisa growled, turning and glaring at him. "Yes, captain!" He said, quickly, clicking his uniform boots together and exiting the room. Lisa's eye twitched again. Yes, signing Roy Fokker on as her XO may not have been the smartest decision she'd ever made.

HR.

Ranma sighed in relief, cutting the Comm channel and flopping back in the small bed in her room aboard the Ayanami. She knew that Lisa, at the very least, would figure out her disguise as "Ranko Tendo" reasonably quickly. After all, she'd seen Ranma's girl form every couple of days, depending on weather and if they were going to the beach or something, for the past twenty years.

Still, she didn't feel like explaining things right now, especially since Lisa hadn't looked too happy when she'd called. Of course, postponing the explanation would likely get Lisa more mad at her, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it, as per usual.

Sitting back up, she looked around her room. It was slightly smaller than her quarters aboard the SDF-1 had been, but then again, this place wasn't a hastily converted apartment building. She had a bedroom and a small shower stall and toilet set-up for a bathroom, but no kitchen or living room. Still, it was definitely better than barracks.

Dumping her pack-load of possessions out on her bed, she proceeded to make the place a little nicer. Of course, since this was Ranma, that consisted of a couple pictures of him and Lisa, her Wild Horse Squadron photo, and a bunch of martial arts equipment. Looking over the clutter that had once been a perfectly serviceable bedroom, she nodded. "Perfect." She said, quietly.

HR.

It took several hours for the Tiger and her two ARMD escorts to dock and completely integrate, during which time Ranma read and trained, and Lisa pulled her hair out from stress. Roy was busy standing off to the side, following any orders he was given and dispensing sage, read sarcastic, advice.

Finally, all was ready, and the two ARMDs began to move slowly through space. From the other side of the shipyard, a long, blue and white shape moved into position to receive them. This was the Battle Cruiser, Tiger, one of the most advanced UN Spacy ships ever built.

It was almost as long as the SDF-1, tapering off at just over 7/8ths of the size, though only about three quarters as wide. Its Engine assembly also looked slightly narrower, as if someone had cut off the SDF-1's twin thruster set and only used one in construction, though its main reflex cannon was about the same.

As it approached the two ARMDs, the ship swiveled out two booms that had formerly been along the hull. Long, spidery docking assemblies gently came into contact with the two other ships as the Tiger matched their velocity.

After this operation was complete, the two assemblies swivelled again, bringing the space carriers in close to the hull and securing them tightly against it.

HR.

"Ayanami and Soryu are successfully integrated." One of the Tiger's bridge officers reported, causing Lisa to sigh in relief. This operation had actually gone much more smoothly than the integration of the original SDF-1 had. Well, at least, nothing had blown up this time.

"Once all the passages and locks are confirmed secure, notify me. I want to make a ship-wide announcement." The captain said, walking off the bridge.

"Yes, Ma'am." Someone called after her, as the doors to the main lift shut behind her.

HR.

"What do you mean 'he's not aboard?' Lisa Hayes demanded, glaring at the man who was in charge of the ship's crew transfer records.

"I… I mean that there hasn't been any 'Lieutenant Commander Hayes' aboard either this ship, or the two ARMDs." He replied, nervously.

Lisa sighed. "But he said he would be here, and the Communication he sent was from the Ayanami." She grumbled. "Would you check again, please?"

"Yes, Ma'am." The Clerk said, desperately wanting to shake his head. Sometimes, he seriously wondered about the sanity of those command types. He'd checked the database twice, already, and there was no…

"Lisa? Looking for me?" Came a male voice, causing the brown haired woman to turn around quickly.

Standing in the doorway to the clerk's office, Ranma grinned back at her. "Sorry, you are really hard to find, you know that?"

Lisa just laughed, running over and throwing an arm around his neck. "You're finally here!" She said, happily, before quickly regaining her professional demeanor. "Though I would like to know how you got aboard without informing any of ship's security."

"Well, that's hard to explain." Ranma started.

"You're going to, though." Lisa interrupted the excuse in the making, flatly, and grabbed Ranma by the arm. "And I'm going to go and get a cup of coffee before I pass out on my feet. Let's combine the two, shall we?"

"But…" Ranma started, only to be cut off as Lisa started walking, his arm firmly held in hers. "All right, I'm coming." He said, falling in along side her.

END.


	3. Chapter 3, Launch Day, Part 2

Here's chapter 3 for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 3, Launch Day: Part 2.

"Wow." Ranma mumbled, as the doors of the lift slid open, revealing what almost looked like a street in Macross City surrounding a large amount of green space.

"This is the 'town.' The designers of the ship felt that the open space aboard the SDF-1 helped us deal with the long space flight, so they've built them into all newer vesels. We've got five levels of this, running through the core of the ship." Lisa explained, stepping out of the lift and onto the street as Ranma followed her. "It supplies a lot of the oxygen for the ships, and it's a nice place to visit."

Ranma merely nodded, exiting after the Captain as she lead him towards what looked almost like an out-door restaurant. Pulling out a chair there, she smiled at him. "So, while it's sweet that you came to visit before the ship's departure, how did you get aboard without security noticing you?"

Ranma, himself, looked a little nervous. He wasn't sure how Lisa would react to his actions in getting aboard the ship, and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well, it was kinda easy." He said, trying to think of an excuse that wouldn't give away his plans. "I came aboard in my girl form. To, erm, surprise you." He said, hurriedly.

Lisa blinked. "So that's why you were female when you called me." She realized, snapping her fingers. Then, however, she frowned. "I am going to have to talk to security about letting some girl with no identification papers into the main areas of the ship." She muttered, darkly.

Ranma winced. Something told him that the ship's security chief wasn't going to like him very much after Lisa was through with him. "This ship's pretty well constructed." He said, trying to change the subject. "It and the ARMDs looked pretty formidable when I flew in."

"Yes." Lisa said, seemingly allowing the subject to be changed for the moment. "And with the docking complete, we should be able to leave the system by tomorrow afternoon. I hope you can get a flight back to earth before then." She said, worriedly.

"It won't be a problem." Ranma said, deadpan, trying not to let his expression very.

Lisa was about to say something else, when a small device on her belt began to beep. Frowning, she picked it up and looked at a little digital screen. "Damn, I've got to get to the bridge." She said, quickly. "I will see you again before you leave, right?"

Ranma smirked slightly. "Yeah, you will." He said, as she ran off.

Inwardly, he sighed in relief, before realizing that Lisa had accidentally left him with her bill at the Café. Given that she'd drank two cups of strong, black Coffee during their small conversation, that was more than a little annoying.

HR.

About five minutes later, Ranma had paid for his and Lisa's drinks, and gotten some cold water. Fortunately, the general flight uniform was mostly unisex, and she'd returned to being 'Ranko Tendo' with a swap of a name tag and a set of rank badges.

As she was walking down the corridors that linked the Tiger with the ARMD Ayanami, she was stopped by the sound of the ship's public announcement system activating. Stopping her progress, she tilted her ear to listen to it.

"This is a message for all hands. The captain has an announcement." The speakers blared out.

HR.

Lisa straightened her uniform shirt, looking nervously at a set of television cameras that had been set up to the side of the bridge. She hadn't precisely liked the idea of having to make a speech, but the UN Spacy brass had wanted a major statement made as to the ship's intent and capability for its mission, and this was the time they'd wanted it made.

Clearing her throat, the captain began to talk. "The ship will begin shakedown maneuvers in two hours while we proceed out of the earth's gravity well for our first space-fold jump." Frowning, she realized that she had flubbed the first part of her speech, but continued on, improvising. "From there, we will begin a jump by jump investigation of the course traveled by the REF Expeditionary Force in 2018."

"I don't know what is out there, none of us do. We have no idea why the ships of that force have failed to report back in such a long time." She said, and then realized that she was getting a little dark. "But I am sure that, with this ship, and the fine men and women who crew her, we will be able to find the REF, and bring them home intact."

The room fell silent, as if waiting for something. Shooting a sidelong glance at Roy, Lisa saw him shrug. "Helm, get us underway." She finally said, and then made a cutting motion to the communications officer. Sighing, she looked over to see that the cameras were off, and the single reporter out of the room, before slumping into the command chair.

HR.

As she looked down from the small screen that had shown the captain while she made her speech, Dana resumed her unpacking in her quarters. Briefly, she let her vision stray to a picture sitting on her bedside table, next to the screen. It depicted a happy, and much younger, Dana balanced on her father's shoulders as both parents walked happily through a park.

Shaking off the distraction, she put the rest of her clothes into a dresser and stowed the suitcase in the small closet. Sitting down, she contemplated what she was going to do next. She was technically not on duty until tomorrow, so the rest of the day was pretty well a write off.

She spent several seconds contemplating the far bulkhead, before standing up suddenly. If she had nothing to do, she may as well explore the ship.

HR.

Later, Dana was beginning to doubt the wisdom in her decision to explore the ship. The Ayanami wasn't a terribly sophisticated design, and its corridors were reasonably straight forward, a honeycomb of boxes, connected and surrounded by straight passages with only 90 degree turns.

One would think that it was impossible to get lost in a setup like this. One would be wrong, as was evidenced by Dana desperately looking at the bulkhead markings to figure out where she was. "3-134-14-L?" She muttered. "Crap." That information would probably be more useful if she could remember what number meant what.

Growling, she made another turn, only to hit a somewhat recognizable landmark. It was a huge room, with aircraft lined up in neat rows at one end and a set of large pressure doors at the other. This, obviously, was one of the ship's hanger bays. The problem was that the Ayanami had 8 of them.

Still, she had found an item of slightly more interest than hundreds of meters of half-empty corridors. Slowly, she entered the room, looking around to see that there were several engineers running around, getting the Veritechs ready for their launch the next day.

Surprisingly, at one end of the room, she saw her red headed flight leader. She was talking to one of the engineers, and seemed kind of animated.

Hesitantly, Dana walked over to the two, getting into hearing range before she was noticed. "You know, a VF-4 with a set of extra reflex packs mounted above its fuselage." Ranko was saying, sounding distinctly annoyed.

"Oh." The engineer said, looking distinctly nervous. "THAT one."

"That one?" Ranko asked, her annoyance turning to worry. "What do you mean THAT one?"

"Um, excuse me." Dana said, interrupting the two.

"Yes, Ma'am?" The engineer asked, eagerly turning away from Ranko to the much less dangerous target. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I sort of got lost." Dana said, blushing a little. She honestly couldn't believe she'd done something this stupid.

"Oh, another one?" The engineer said. "That guy over there thinks he's on the Soryu." He continued, pointing to a man in a red flight suit, wearing a distinctly annoyed glare. A moment later, Dana knew why the man was annoyed as the jerk started laughing at her.

"Where ya tryin to get to?" Ranko asked, nudging the engineer in the ribs lightly.

"I was headed for the officers mess." Dana said, giving the engineer, who was still chuckling, a dirty look.

"That's three decks up and far starboard." Ranko replied, instantly. "We're at the port dorsal hanger deck."

"Thanks." Dana said, about to turn away but stopped as Ranko turned back to the engineer.

"Now what was it about THAT plane?" The redhead growled.

The engineer just gulped, pointing to a Veritech that was sitting at the back of the hanger, a tarp covering the nose. Ranko walked over to inspect it, and out of curiosity, Dana followed. When the pigtailed pilot lifted up the tarp, her eye began to twitch violently, and she spun to face the engineer.

He had tried to book it, making it half way across the deck before she stormed after him. Still slightly curious, Dana pulled up the sheet herself and winced. The VF-4's nose looked like someone had smashed it with a sledge hammer. The damage looked repairable, especially since Veritechs could have their entire nose sections removed for maintenance, but it would probably put the machine down for several days.

Peering at the rest of the plane, Dana's eyes narrowed. It was a really strange design. Though it was a VF-4 variant, it had a lot of little add-ons and conformal bulges that would make it less aerodynamic in an atmosphere and seemed to serve little purpose.

The serial number on the side read "VF-4R," and the word EXPERIMENTAL was written under it in small black letters. She blinked at the odd markings for a moment, before turning away and resolving to ask her commander about her odd choice of aircraft later. Judging from the way Ranko was digging into the mechanic, her hands on her hips, and every so often, using those same hands to gesture in a disturbing manner, at the moment Dana decided that it may not have been the best idea. wincing as she departed, she was amazed at the amount of volume such a petite red head could produce.

"What do you mean it's not a big deal? You ripped the damned nose off my fighter!"

"Three decks up and to starboard." She muttered, exiting the room quickly. Oddly enough, the pilot from the Soryu had also gone somewhere, but she just shrugged this off.

HR.

Minmei Hibiki sighed as she gently nudged open the apartment door, balancing several small parcels in her arms. "Go on, sparkey." She said, letting a small white dog off of the leash that had previously been tied to her hand. "Ryoga, I'm back!" She called, hearing the sound of excited feet running through the house. Unfortunately, it wasn't her husband, but their other dog that ran to meet her.

"Hmm, that's odd." She said, bending down to check the black dog's collar. The two had taken to using guide dogs, rather similar to those used by the blind, once Minmei realized precisely how many problems Ryoga's direction problem could get them into. Unfortunately, it seemed that Ryoga's dog, Shiro, was in the house without him.

"Don't tell me he wandered off again." She muttered. The last time this had happened, he'd been found wandering around inside of the Daedalus's bridge… two weeks later.

Seeing a note stuck to the phone, the former idol singer plucked it off and read it. "Gone to the store, be back in a bit."

She sighed. He'd be gone for a while again, she supposed.

HR.

"I'm telling you, I know what I saw." One man said, over a beer with two others in the mess hall of the Soryu.

"I think you just watch too much anime." One of the others drawled. "I mean, why do you fixate on stuff from back then, anyhow? It was old before you were born."

The first man looked slightly affronted. "Well, with the name of the ship it does seem kind of odd, you've got to admit."

"For the last time, we're named after an aircraft carrier from the second world war." A third man butted in, sounding bored with the argument.

"Oh, and the Ayanami?" The first countered, instantly.

"Coincidence." The third drawled again.

"We may as well look at this picture of his." The second man said, sighing. "Then maybe he'll shut up."

"I just wanna know why he carries a camera everywhere." The third mumbled, before being glared at by the first. Sighing, he reached out to take the picture, printed out recently from a digital printer. His eyebrows lifted. "Y'know, he's kinda right." He said, surprised.

"Let me see that!" The second man demanded, swiping the image. His eyebrows twitched. "Okay, so I owe you a drink." He muttered, sullenly.

The first man simply cackled in triumph, before being elbowed in the ribs by the second. "Aw, shut up."

HR.

Lisa Hayes walked up to the park that was housed in the center of the Tiger's crew section, having heard rumors of someone practicing the martial arts there. As she'd suspected, Ranma was there, once again in his female form and running through Kata.

Quickly judging the level of the moves, Lisa noted that they were rather low level. Smirking, as she was off duty, she stepped into the park and joined the shorter redhead, beginning the countering set of moves.

She wasn't a particularly good martial artist. The art, quite frankly, didn't interest her for fighting but running through the basic Kata of Ranma's school was a lot better than most of the exercise programs she'd ever seen.

"So, what are you doing out here?" She asked, leaning back as Ranma's slow sweep brushed across the front of her uniform.

"Nothing." The redhead returned, slightly annoyed sounding. "Just been wandering around."

"Doesn't explain why you're performing practice Kata to calm down, though." Lisa said, sagely.

Ranma shrugged. "Someone dropped a piece of my luggage." She said. Technically, she was telling the truth. The VF-4R that had been damaged earlier was actually a specially built machine, and pretty well hers.

There were very few other people in the current RDF that could use the plane to its potential, and most would be hampered by its extra bulk.

Lisa nodded, understanding. "They ended up breaking all my picture frames during the flight up here." She said. "And do I want to know why you're a girl again?"

"Security?" Ranma said, though it was only an excuse. It showed how much out of it Lisa was that she actually seemed to buy it.

"I still don't understand why you didn't just fly up here as yourself." She said, exasperated. "Well, I suppose you've always got to be different."

Ranma smirked. "Of course." She said, finishing the Kata by backflipping over the captain's head, poking her in the back of the head the same way she had with Akane when they'd first met.

Lisa blinked. "Oh, you've defeated me." She said, slightly dramatically. "Do you feel proud that you've bested a middle aged naval officer?"

Ranma smirked. "You're not middle aged." She said, as the two walked off, out of the park.

"Well, how about you go get some hot water, and we can get some dinner to take my mind off of my brutal loss?" Lisa asked, smiling.

Ranma was about to say no, when her stomach growled loudly. "Well, I guess that's a yes." She said, sheepishly.

On the edge of the park, two of the Tiger's ground forces marines looked back and forth at each other. "Do you suddenly feel like we don't train enough?" One asked, causing the other to nod rapidly.

HR.

"Where the hell am I now?" Ryoga Hibiki demanded, looking around the small, noisy room he'd found himself in. His eyes identified the room almost immediately, actually. It was the main reactor assembly access tube for a reflex furnace. The only question was, where was that reflex furnace, and how the hell had he gotten there?

Growling, the bandana clad man reared back to punch something, but quickly caught himself. Causing damage to anything in here could do very bad things to whatever ship he was on. Lowering his fist, the lost engineer opened the door, stumbling into a main engine room full of very surprised technicians.

"Commander Hibiki?" One of them asked, smiling. "I didn't know you were assigned aboard!"

Ryoga turned to recognize one of the men he'd worked with during the reconstruction after the war. "Um, yeah." He said, scratching the back of his head. "What ship am I on, anyways?"

END.


	4. Chapter 4, Orange Squadron

Minor Revision: Ranko is now a flight leader, rather than the squadron leader. Don't worry, nothing major to reread for the last few chapters.

Now that THAT is out of the way, enjoy the newest chapter and don't forget to review!

Chapter 4, Orange Squadron.

Ranma yawned expansively as his eyes cracked open, blinking several times up at an unfamiliar steel grey ceiling. Turning slightly, he saw is bedside table, with a small digital clock display showing on the terminal there. It said 05:30, which was rather early for him to get up while not on assignment, but he was awake now. Rolling off of the bed and to his feet, he went to get some clothes, only to find a large quantity of flight suits, and only a few pieces of casual clothing. As he picked up the one he'd worn the day before and saw the name and rank badges, everything came back to him. "Oh, right." He muttered, wondering how he could forget he'd boarded the space carrier yesterday.

Quickly slipping on a new set of clothes, Ranma contemplated just going out as he was, but decided against it. Yesterday, he'd been sure to change from one form to the other in places that were far away from the Ayanami, and he didn't want his male form associated with this room. Splashing himself, she adjusted the set of her uniform's shirt, and then headed out the door.

As she walked down the corridors, she wondered what her first order of business should be. This question was quickly answered, however, as her stomach growled again. "Okay, to the mess." She muttered, smiling slightly and turning to find one of the ship's lifts.

HR.

About twenty minutes later, Ranma had gotten to the Ayanami's officer's mess. It was a lot like the old cafeteria at Furinkan had been when she was in high school. This was surprising, as that also included the swarms of people trying to get their meals. Of course, most of them were probably night shift.

Shrugging, Ranma stood in the line and waited, letting her mind go over the events that were planned for the day. She would meet her fellow squadron members today, and they would be given a brief flight test before the Tiger jumped to fold space. She shivered. She didn't really like fold space travel, as she had to be very careful not to let her aura out at any time. It was sort of like being locked into a cage with electrified bars, but it was the fastest method of travel available to the UN Spacy, and very few people had any problems with it.

"Are you going to order?" Came a slightly annoyed voice, from right in front of Ranma. She blinked, noticing that she'd gotten to the front of the line. "Oh, sorry." She mumbled. "Not quite awake yet."

The server just shook his head, piling the foods Ranma had indicated onto her tray. Ranma then proceeded to a table near the corner of the room, setting her tray down and beginning to eat.

After she'd eaten her second bowl of what the kitchen staff laughingly called soup, she felt someone tap on her shoulder. Instantly, instincts that she'd spent the vast majority of the past twenty years trying, and failing, to suppress came to the surface, causing her to swat the hand away with her left hand, while continuing to eat with her right.

"Hmm, well that's not very friendly." A male voice said, causing Ranma to stop eating for a second to look up. There, she saw a man in a pilot's uniform, looking slightly offended and holding his right hand. Taking in his rank pips, she saw that he was an Ensign. "Sorry about that." She said, shortly. "Somethin I can do for you?"

"I was just wondering if I could sit here." He said, gesturing to the empty spots at her table. "Most of the rest of the room's full already."

Ranma looked around, only to see a few empty seats nearby. Still, it wouldn't do anything to her to let him sit at the table, and it wasn't like she owned it. Shrugging, she nodded. "No problem." She said, turning back to her meal.

"So, I haven't seen you aboard before…" He said, trying to start up a conversation.

Ranma shrugged. "I just came aboard yesterday." She said, then looked at him oddly. "I thought the ship just got its first load of pilots then."

He smirked. "Well, I was part of the Ayanami's guard squadron during her shakedown cruise."

"I see." Ranma said, bored. "So, why are you still aboard?"

"They're re-assigning me to one of the active combat squadrons." He explained. "What squadron are you in? Maybe we'll be assigned together."

Ranma's eye twitched. Was this guy hitting on her? If so, he had the subtlety of a Kuno. "I'm the leader of Orange Squadron's second flight." She said, drinking a small amount of her water.

"…leader…. Of orange?" He asked, gulping slightly.

Ranma smirked as he started to look distinctly nervous. "You wouldn't happen to be Dan Bartlet, would you?" She asked, casually, finally remembering the man's face from the profiles she'd been given of her squad mates.

"Erm, yeah." He said, sheepishly. "I just spent the last five minutes trying to flirt with my commanding officer, didn't I?" He asked.

"Afraid so." Ranma said, taking another spoonful of her soup.

"Well, is it working?" He asked, hopefully.

"No." Ranma replied.

He shrugged. "Worth a try." He said, off-hand. "It was good to meet you, anyways, Ma'am."

"Erm, yeah…." Ranma said, unsure of what had just happened, as Dan picked up his empty tray and wandered off.

HR.

"So, how did it go?" Chris Mckinney, a thin, blonde haired man, asked as he approached Dan at the tray racks.

"Well, I found out who my flight leader is." The shorter man said, shrugging.

"You've got to be kidding me." Chris replied. "And here I didn't think you could have screwed up much worse than hitting on the wife of that guy with the bandana."

"Don't remind me." Dan replied, rubbing at his shoulder. "At least this time I didn't get anything dislocated." As Chris looked at him questioningly, he shrugged. "She actually didn't seem to hold it against me."

HR.

"Are you all right, commander?" A young technician asked, offering a hand up to Ryoga, who had just sneezed rather violently while hanging from a ladder in the Tiger's after section.

"I'm fine." The bandana clad man exclaimed, hoisting himself up without the other man's hand. "Looks like you've got some of the contacts set wrong." He said, brushing some dust off of his overalls and not looking at all like he'd almost fallen several hundred feet straight down.

"I'll have to take a look at that." The younger man said, still kind of shocked at Ryoga's display of strength. The pig cursed man merely nodded before turning and walking away. He didn't know how he'd found himself aboard this ship, but he figured that he could help while he was here. Plus, he'd heard a rumor that Ranma was around here somewhere, and a good fight would be nice.

HR.

Orange squadron's briefing room was a small place. It had a single round table with several seats, and a digital display screen at the front. This was the first thing Ranma noticed as she walked in, only a few minutes before the first briefing was to begin.

Dana was already there, sitting next to the man she'd met earlier in the mess. Pulling out the chair on the other side of the other female pilot, Ranma settled in for the briefing.

"Glad to see you've found your way around." She said, smiling at Dana.

"Well, I kind of didn't." Dana explained, sheepishly. "I had to ask him for directions."

Ranma shrugged. "Don't worry, you'll get it eventually." She said, as two other people entered the room. They were both male, dark skinned, and looked startlingly similar. Ranma wasn't sure, but they could be twins. Each wore a nametag, labeling them as S and A Andrews.

"Hi." The guy with the S on his nametag said, smiling at the other three. "The name's Sam." The other man didn't say anything, so Sam frowned. "He's Andrew, but he's kinda quiet."

"Ranko." Ranma said, frowning as she'd almost slipped with the name. She hadn't responded to Ranko for a very long time.

Dana and Dan introduced themselves as well, before Sam looked around the room excitedly. "So, where's the squadron leader?"

"Well, we've got a few minutes before he shows up." Dan said, checking a watch on his right wrist. Unfortunately, he was proven wrong, as an older looking man with a neatly cut mustache walked into the room a moment later.

Dana snickered. "Looks like you've got to reset your watch." She whispered.

"See if I tell you where to go anymore." He shot back, smirking.

The older man, a Commander with close cropped brown hair, cleared his throat, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Hello, people. I'm Tom Einburg, your squadron leader. I've read all of your service records, and you all seem to be near the top of your classes at the training academies, so I'm sure you'll do your jobs. I'm sure I can whip you into a good fighting force quickly enough. Given my time in Skull under Commander Fokker, I've had much practice."

Ranma blinked, trying to associate the man's face with anyone she'd known aboard the SDF-1, but drew a blank. Unfortunately, she had apparently taken too long to check her memory. "Miss Tendo, did you hear me?" Einburg said, obviously annoyed.

"Sorry, sir." Ranma muttered, feeling like she was back in school again for a moment.

"As I was saying…" He continued, with a huff. "You, Miss Sterling and Mr. Bartlet will be flight two. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." Ranma replied.

"Good, now let's go over what we'll be doing during our training flight today." The commander said, clicking a button to the side of the digital screen at the front of the room, causing a small map of the space around the Tiger to pop into existence.

HR.

Twenty minutes later, Ranma walked down the corridor with Dana and Dan, headed for the hangar where the planes they had been assigned were stored. "Sounds pretty easy." Dan offered, cracking his knuckles.

"Well, if this guy's really trained with Commander Fokker, we should be challenged enough." Ranko said, smirking from the front of the line.

"You know Roy Fokker?" Dana asked, surprised. She'd met him a few times, since her godfather was one of his friends, but she didn't think Ranko had.

"Erm, I saw him and skull fly a few times." Ranma said, nervously, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the door to the hangar.

Turning into it, she was surprised to see that her plane was sitting at one end, a different mechanic from last time working under the damaged nose. "Excuse me, I'll be back in a minute, okay?" She said, turning to her squadron mates.

"Sure, I guess." Dan said, confused. Dana just shrugged.

Nodding, Ranma started across the hangar to the plane. Hearing the sound of the little redhead's foot tapping the deck directly behind him, the engineer looked up and smiled. "Hey, Commander Hayes." He said, casually.

"Erm, Toshi, don't say that here, okay?" She asked, wincing and shooting a look back at the other two. They seemed not to have heard anything, the comment having been muffled under the general noise of the hanger, and were beginning to prep the fighters they had been assigned for launch.

"Sure." Toshi said, looking confused. He had been a student of Ryoga's, both in the engineering and martial arts, for several years by this point. As an almost direct result, he knew Ranma and had happily worked on his aircraft, test or otherwise, for almost three years. "So, what should I call you?" He asked, looking at the name badge on her flight suit.

"Ranko's fine." She said, seeing the confused look in his eyes. "Look, I'll explain it later. What the heck are you doin here, anyhow?"

"Well, they wanted someone to look after the R-type and shuttle it up here." Toshi explained. "Given where this ship's going, I figured it would be a nice posting to have."

"Erm, thanks." Ranko said, before shooting an annoyed glance to the damaged plane. "So, how'd you let this happen?"

Toshi looked annoyed. "I went away for thirty minutes to get my kit set up, and some idiot ran an AWACS's sensor cluster into it. Sorry, Ma'am."

To Toshi's surprise, Ranko didn't respond to the feminine suffix, even though he'd been sure to stress it. "Not your fault." She said. "But… how long do ya figure until you can get it repaired?"

"Well…" Toshi said, assuming a thinking posture. "Part of the airframe's been bent out of shape, and a lot of the nose's electronics and radar gear's shot." He frowned. "I wish I had Hibiki-sensei here to help out. After all, I can't bend the frame by hand, but if I can get the extra bodies I need…. Maybe as little as a week, two weeks maximum."

Ranko sighed, but nodded. "Thanks. I know you're doin the best ya can." She said, before turning away. "I'd better get goin or I won't be able to launch in time."

"No problem, Ma'am." Toshi said, looking after the departing martial artist. He'd known the other for several years, and he still hadn't quite figured Ranma Hayes out. Shrugging, he got back to work.

HR.

Only a couple of minutes later, Ranko sat in the cockpit of a VF-4A, running quickly through its checklists. Though she wasn't cutting any corners, she could do a lot of the systems checks much faster than an average pilot, and not simply because she could feel the plane's reflex energy coursing through its systems. She had, after all, been doing this for a VERY long time. "Orange 21, basic checks complete." She said, only a few seconds before 22 and 23 reported in.

"So, Lt, What did you need to go talk to that engineer about?" Dan asked, curiously, as the three Veritechs taxied to the elevator platform that would lift them onto the Ayanami's main launch deck.

"I think she was talking about her plane. It got crunched yesterday." Dana interrupted. "Erm, sorry for interrupting, Ma'am." She said, quickly.

"It's fine." Ranko said, as the fighters came to a stop on the deck. "You two ever launched off of an ARMD?" She asked, curiously.

"I've gone through simulations." Dana offered, weakly. "And I completed my qualifications from a wet navy carrier."

Ranko smirked. "Then this should be fun for you." She said, as she pushed her throttle to its full forward position.

The other two planes of Orange's second wing did the same, and the three Veritechs, with catapult assistance, streaked off of the edge of the ARMD's flight deck. As they gained distance, the ARMD's gravity field suddenly vanished, and Ranko's stomach gave a little lurch.

Banking sharply, the leader of Flight two kept an eye on her two wingmen by radar, forming up with flight one. "Good, that was a nice takeoff." Commander Einburg said. "Now, let's start on basic maneuvers."

HR.

Ten minutes later, Ranko was thoroughly bored, but couldn't let it show. All that they'd been doing so far was relatively routine, and she could do it in her sleep. The problem was that it was slightly challenging to Dana and Dan, who hadn't been flying nearly as long, and she'd been keeping a vigilant eye on them as she went through various missile avoidance maneuvers.

"All right." Orange 1's radio signal came through, as Ranko was performing a tight barrel roll. "Straighten up and form up. It's time to see what you and your machines are capable of on a straight run. Our squadron is meant for attack runs, after all." He chuckled. "I know that you won't be able to keep up with my VF-4S, but let's still see what you've got."

Ranko's eye twitched, as she pulled out of the roll, falling in behind orange three. She so badly wanted to ram her throttle forward, dump her chi into her engines and tell Orange 1 to eat her dust, but that was definitely not a way to keep from being noticed. On thinking it over, she figured it would probably not be a good idea for her stock VF-4's systems, too. Shrugging, she did the next best thing. Increasing speed, she decided to match her skills against Orange one without any enhancements.

"Think you can play with me, 21?" The Squadron leader said, obvious laughter in his voice. He wasn't laughing for long.

END.


	5. Chapter 5, Into the Unknown

Welcome back, folks. My system imploded last week, and I'm still in the process of re-installing everything. My dictionary's gone, too, so sorry if I spelled any in-show stuff wrong. And yes, this is the third time since I got a FFN account that this has happened.

ANYHOW, shutting up. Enjoy the chapter, and R&R if you would.

Chapter 5, Into the Unknown.

Ranko winced as the VF-4S in front of her kicked in its afterburners once more, keeping just out of reach as it executed a tight, high G course change to swoop directly over her cockpit. Responding instantly, she threw her own plane into an almost exact duplicate of the move, her many years of flight testing temperamental aircraft coming in handy as she completed the roll at the end much more smoothly and with a lot less thrust.

She smiled as she heard a soft mumble of annoyance through the open Comm, before Commander Einburg opened his engines to full again, trying to out-distance his persistent tail.

HR.

"This is insane." Dan muttered, watching the two small orange dots that flitted across the screen of his close range radar.

"You're telling me." Dana said, over the flight frequency. "I think they forgot about us." One of the other two pilots laughed, but Dan couldn't tell which one it was because both of the twins in flight 1 sounded the same over the comm.

Abruptly, just before Orange 21 was about to overtake Orange 1 on the radar, the squadron leader's voice came over the link. "All right, that's enough Tendo." He said, trying to sound cheerful. "Let's get back to work, shall we?"

"Yes, sir." Ranko said, and Dan could almost hear the smirk over the radio.

"Nice job, Ma'am." He complimented, followed by an agreement from Dana.

Ranko just snorted. "Almost got him." She said, then shrugged. "Though he's right, that S-type of his outperforms our machines by quite a bit."

"Didn't look like it from where I was flying." Dana laughed, but was silenced as the commander began issuing flight orders.

HR.

A bit over three hours later, the Veritechs of Orange squadron lowered into the hangar, and then slowly taxied to their parking positions. "Interesting landing, Bartlet." Dana chuckled, as Orange 23 came in with evident, though slight, damage to one of its landing gear.

Dan snorted. "I just overcompensated a bit for the Weapons deck they bolted onto our rear, that's all. I expected it to make a bigger difference than it did." He complained, referring to the large, blocky addition that had been made to the Ayanami's stern section the day before, right before it had docked with the Tiger.

"Sure… excuses, excuses." Dana laughed, teasing. She'd felt a little like an idiot always getting lost over the past couple of days, even though she'd been told that it was only natural for a newcomer to an ARMD, and was glad that someone else had screwed up.

"Cut the chatter." Ranko said. "Dan's just lucky we were still in zero G when that happened. Make sure you study any changes to the ship more carefully next time, all right?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Dan replied, sheepishly.

The three became silent after that, and moments later the aircraft had been completely powered down. As the five pilots stood in front of their planes, Commander Einburg paced up and down in front of them.

"Well, you all seem to know a flight stick from a transformation control, which is good. We're going to be going into a possible combat zone in a few days, when the ship drops out of its first fold jump, so you'd all better get prepared, and Bartlet, I suggest you take some time in the simulators before then. Dismissed, for now." He said, and the group turned to walk out of the room.

As Ranko reached the door, she heard someone running up behind her. "Ma'am." He said, the voice identifying him as Toshi. Ranko merely looked back at him, and shrugged. "You promised that you'd explain what was going on?" He asked, then smirked. "And something tells me this is a good story."

"You wanna tell me how my plane's fairing, first?" She asked, diverting the subject.

He shrugged. "Well, we've got all the replacement parts in, and I found someone to help out." He said, smirking slightly. "We should be able to get the airframe repaired faster than we thought."

"Good," She said, then thought of something. "Oh, and if you've got time, I've got a VF-4 over there with a blown hydraulic cylinder on its nose gear."

"I'll get it later." He said, before smirking. "And you've still failed to change the subject."

She sighed, but nodded. "You free to get something to eat? I'm hungry. I'll tell you while we eat."

"Always happy to, so long as you're paying." He chuckled, following her as she exited the room.

Behind her, Dan sighed, causing Dana to give him an odd look. "Well, guess that's why she shot me down earlier." He commented.

"Huh?" The blond asked, not comprehending.

"I suppose he's her boyfriend." He answered, shortly.

In the hallway, Ranko felt an inexplicable urge to start laughing, but shrugged it off as she and her mechanic kept walking towards the officers Mess.

HR.

"So… now I've got to serve as a girl, and baby-sit Ben's goddaughter." Ranko said, after swallowing another bite of some form of poultry that may, in some incarnation, have been chicken. "Not that I really mind, I mean Dana's a nice kid and I don't wanna see anything bad happen to her, but…" She shrugged.

"So that's it." Toshi said, nodding. "I was sorta wondering when you didn't yell at me when I called you Ma'am. I'll be sure to tell commander Hibiki so he doesn't blow your cover."

Ranko choked on her next bite of food. "H… Hibiki?" She hacked, while simultaneously trying to swallow. "He's here?"

Toshi nodded. "I found him in the machine shop. Said he got lost." He said, as if it were the only explanation that was necessary. with Hibiki though, it was. Ranko groaned.

"At least that means my bird will be back in the air sooner." She muttered. "So long as he doesn't blow it up or smash it to bits before then."

Toshi chuckled, then looked down to his bowl, which was empty. He could have sworn that there was still a few bites left in it before, but shrugged it off. "Well, my lunch break's over." He said, standing. "I'll see you tomorrow, I'm heading back to oversee repairs to 23 and I'll report in as soon as your bird is ready to fly again."

"Thanks." Ranko said, wiping off her hands and picking up both of their trays

"Wonder how loud Hibiki Sensie'll yell?" Toshi muttered, heading for the door.

HR.

Ranko walked into her quarters, smiling. The day had been going relatively well, so far. She'd found that her squadron was populated, mostly, with people that wouldn't be a pain to work with and she'd been informed that her fighter would be back in working condition in a few days.

Sitting down on her bed, she contemplated what to do to occupy the rest of the day, when she heard a soft beeping sound coming from her terminal. Reaching over slowly, she tapped the button and Admiral Dixon's face appeared on the screen.

"Ben?" She asked, surprised.

"I wanted to see how things were going with Dana." He answered, the ship's super-luminal communications system managing to carry his image and voice with few errors. The lag time between the two officers was negligible, making useful two way signals possible, at least until the ship entered fold space later in the day

"Didn't you call her?" Ranko asked, confused.

"Yes, and she seems fine… though you've apparently been showing off a bit." Ben said, trying to look disapproving but not really succeeding in suppressing a grin.

Ranko shrugged. "Sorry, it's part of what I do." She said.

Ben's face soon lost his amused expression, as he looked behind Ranko. "You do know you've got pictures of you and Lisa on display behind you, right?" He asked, casually.

Ranko blinked, and looked over her shoulder. "Yes…" She said, slowly. "These are my private quarters. I didn't think I had to worry."

Ben frowned. "And if she calls you like I did?"

Ranko winced. "Point taken." She muttered. "Sorry, Ben. It's gunna take me time to get used to the whole 'Ranko' thing again." She explained. "Last time I did it was a LONG time ago, and I was hiding from my mom, not your goddaughter."

"I understand." Ben said. "Just try to be more careful." He leaned forward eagerly. "But other than that, how's Dana doing?"

Ranko laughed. "You sure she's not really your kid?" She asked, before seeing Ben scowling at her. "I'll just say she's not as good as Max or Miriya were, but she's got the potential."

"I wasn't talking about flying." Ben muttered.

Ranko blinked. "Huh?" She asked, confused.

Ben just groaned, before a small message popped up at the bottom of the screen. "Attention, space fold commencing in three minutes. All communications will be terminated."

"Look, Ben. We're folding soon. I gotta go." Ranko said, before reaching to cut the comm.. line.

"Wait, I…" Ben started, but Ranko had already hit the button. His face blinked off screen, and the words "Fold initiating" and a timer replaced it.

Ranko chuckled, but then sighed. Ben was right, and she would have to be more careful about what she did in order to keep Dana in the dark. Reluctantly, she repacked all of the pictures of her and her friends. sliding a small one of everyone at one of the surprise parties Kasumi insisted on organizing for Nabiki out of its frame, she slipped it into her wallet and stowed the frame away as well.

This was going to be a long trip, she thought, though she'd already known about that.

HR.

"Anything else?" Lisa Hayes asked, paging through a list of reports on the Tiger and her crew's readiness for the space fold.

"Well, we've got one stow away." Roy said, handing her another report.

"A stow away?" Lisa asked, looking at the information and blinking. "How'd he get onboard?"

"No one's got an explanation for it, so I figure he just got lost." Roy answered. "Someone tried to track him down to send him back to earth on one of our shuttles, but he's disappeared again."

Lisa smirked. "Chances are he's back there already. She said. "He usually doesn't stick around in one place for long unless Ranma or Minmei are there." She frowned for a moment, Remembering Ranma. He'd sent her a message this morning stating that he'd left the Tiger. 'He could have said goodbye in person.' She thought, but then shook it off. "Well, it looks like we're ready." She finally said.

"Longest space fold jump ever made by a completely human made ship." Roy said, smiling. "Feels almost like I'm in a VF-1 again."

Lisa didn't respond, merely getting up and walking out of the conference room behind the ship's main bridge. "Does engineering report ready for jump yet?" She asked, looking towards the bridge's operations officer."

"Yes, Ma'am." He said.

"Fold coordinates locked in, we can jump on your command." The navigator reported.

"Good." Lisa said, almost wanting to hold her breath. The day before, there had been a ceremony, taped and broadcast across the earth, for the ship merely leaving the orbital yards. Since it had done so many times before, she hadn't really put much stock in the ceremony. It was ironic that, though it was shrouded in much less ceremony, this was the real start of her ship's mission. "sound jump stations, Activate the fold drive." She announced, before sitting down in her chair.

"Fold drive is ready for jump." The OPS officer confirmed, nodding.

Lisa unconsciously settled herself more comfortably into her chair. "execute jump."

Immediately, the air around her seemed to become charged with something for a moment, before the ship lurched a little.

Outside of the Tiger, a white glow seemed to outline the entire ship, before abruptly spreading to fill in the outline. The white mass shimmered for a moment, and then vanished.

"We've entered fold space." The navigator reported, sighing in relief. "ETA to our exit point, 4 days, 14 Hours subjective."

Lisa nodded, before leaning back in her seat and sighing in relief. This fold jump had definitely gone much more smoothly than the first jump of the last large ship she'd been aboard.

HR.

"So, what is it you wanted me to look at?" Ryoga Hibiki asked, as Shiro lead him into one of the Ayanami's work shops.

"Over here, sir." The younger engineer said, gesturing to a VF-4 that was sitting in a maintenance slip in the corner of the room. Ryoga looked over it, noting the busted nose in an instant, and then allowed the other details of the fighter to become apparent… Including the designation.

"This is Ranma's fighter. what's it doing aboard this ship?" The lost boy asked

Toshi chuckled. "It's assigned to a young lady named Ranko Tendo." He confided.

"Tendo?" Ryoga asked, thinking. After a few seconds, his eyes widened. "Why the hell's he doing THAT again?"

"Well, she told me it was because admiral Dixon wanted someone to watch Lt. Sterling." He answered, shrugging. "I just find it kind of funny. So, are you willing to help me repair this thing, Sensei?"

Ryoga pondered for a moment, but finally nodded. "May as well, but I'm going to have to have a long… talk… with Miss Tendo later." He said, cracking his knuckles and exposing one of his fangs.

Shiro merely smiled, walking under the gutted nose assembly of the Veritech and pointing out all of the structural problems he'd noted.

Ryoga was about to follow his lead, when he heard someone clearing their throat. Looking over, he saw a blond haired girl, maybe eighteen years old, looking at him sheepishly. "Excuse me, could you tell me where I am? I sort of got turned around during the fold alert, and no one was around."

Ryoga just blinked at her for several seconds, before tapping on Shiro's shoulder. "Where are we?" He asked.

"Maintenance bay 4, port, deck 6." The younger man replied, having long since gotten used to Ryoga asking that.

"Thanks." The girl said, quickly walking off.

HR.

"So, what do ya think?" Ensign Jeremy Blake asked, holding up the small image.

"I think you're nuts." The Soryu's CAG, Amanda Sisko replied, looking at it. It showed the image of a short, red haired woman on one side, and a very well photo-rendered and animated version of the same woman, wearing a skin tight red suit on the other.

She was also wearing some sort of red clip to secure her pigtail, and standing in front of a giant, roaring red robot. She had to admit that the murderous look on the little redhead's face definitely suited what she'd heard about Asuka Langley, but she still wasn't sure.

"Come on, it's perfect." The lower ranking officer said, smirking. "With the ship's name and everything, it makes sense."

"The other guys put you up to this, didn't they?" She asked, rubbing her temples.

He shook his head. "I talked them into it, actually." He explained. "Marks has agreed to make the patches if I get your approval."

"Have you asked the model of this thing?" She asked again.

He looked nervous. "Of course I did." He said, quickly. "She didn't have a problem with it, but the EVA had no comment."

"Smart ass." Amanda drawled, but sighed. "If all the guys agree, I really don't see the problem, but it is a little weird, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "Well, we need our own patch, or do you want us to keep the generic one?"

She nodded reluctantly. "All right, I approve the change, but I'll have to inform Commander Fokker. Still given his sense of humor, I doubt he'll object."

"Thank you, Ma'am." The Junior officer, part of Red Squadron, said before saluting and walking off.

Amanda just shrugged. "Why did we get all the weirdoes?" She thought, not knowing that she'd just set off a sneezing fit in the Ayanami's hangar decks and crew quarters.

HR.

In deep space, Approximately 3 light days from the edge of the Sol system, a ripple seemed to develop in the fabric of space. Within seconds, a dozen extremely large ships ripped from the distortion, their small support vessels milling about them in a swarm. The fleet had come a long way to reach the earth, but the fact that the fleet was so massive, along with incorrect targeting data, had left them far from the planet. It would take them several months to reach the system.

Even still, the Robotech masters had arrived, and they were soon going to make life difficult for the system's defenders.

END.

Ooh, Omenous. Bye, folks!


	6. Chapter 6, A Quick Spar between friends

Well, this one was hard to get out. It's really too bad I need a fact checker to help me or I'll screw this up epicly. (Grumbles about the military.)

Anyhow, on with the show.

Chapter 6, A Quick Spar between friends.

Ranko lay back on the padded bench of one of the weight machines in the Ayanami's small athletics room, hoisting a barbell above her head and lowering it in a smooth and well practiced series of repetitions. The weight wasn't the heaviest she could usually lift, only about 150 pounds, but given that she had to be careful not to let any chi leak past her skin while the ship was in fold space, it was about the best she could do at the moment.

It'd been a few days since the Tiger had entered fold space, which meant that she and the other fighter pilots were remarkably bored, save for a few simulator training sessions. Still, it was better than being back on earth, she kept telling herself, even if she had heard rumors that they'd been developing some sort of new Veritech hovertank before she left that she likely would have been assigned as a test pilot for.

As she thought this over, the pigtailed martial artist didn't notice a shadow that cast itself over her weight bench, until Ryoga Hibiki grabbed the bar and started pushing down. Grunting, Ranko managed to keep the thing steady for a few seconds, before her lack of muscle tone compared to him and the weight pressing down caused her to let the bar drop, rolling forward from under it. "What was that for?" She snapped, irritated.

Ryoga smirked. "For making me have to repair something else you broke." He replied, though he clearly didn't show any malice. "Your flying deathtrap's ready."

Ranko smirked at the lost boy, knowing that, for some reason, he'd always hated the idea of flying in a Veritech fighter. She'd thought it had something to do with getting lost and somehow blundering into the canopy of an old growth forest the first time he ever flew one outside of a simulator, but had never pushed it. "Thanks, Commander." She said, saluting him.

Ryoga blinked at her for a few seconds, before remembering what Ranma was doing. He simply nodded, starting for the back of the room. Ranko would have let him wander off, but sighed. "Where are you trying to get to, sir?"

He turned around, thought for a moment and shook his head. "I was going to head back to the Tiger, but…" He started, cracking his neck. "I just got an idea. How about a little martial arts match?"

Ranko blinked, pretending not to comprehend while tensing her body up in a way that read to any well-trained martial artist as a signal to back off. Seeing this, Ryoga's expression turned teasing. "Well, my usual sparring partner isn't on this trip." He explained, then said the one thing that could provoke the redhead in the current situation. "Don't worry though, I'll go easy on you."

Ranko's eyebrow twitched… violently. She'd grown up quite a lot in the twenty years since she and Ryoga had been real, brutal rivals, but the guy could still find many ways to annoy her. Nodding tersely, she walked into the middle of the room, where the floor was padded and cleared of obstacles to help in martial arts sparring, and waved one arm as a signal. Ryoga nodded, walked onto the mat across from her, and the two bowed.

Seconds later, Ryoga lunged forward, Ranko's form blurred slightly in a counter, and the battle was joined.

HR.

Dan Bartlet whistled to himself as he headed down the corridor, flipping his access pass card over in his hands. He'd been quite enjoying the last few days of relaxation, especially after near constant test flights before the Tiger was launched. Today, however, he'd decided to go and get a decent workout, if for no other reason than that he was feeling slightly guilty for being so relaxed on a warship.

Stepping into the training room, he was about to walk over to the changing rooms to put on a pair of sweats, when he noticed a commotion in the middle of the floor. Turning, he saw two other officers fighting, one quite a bit larger than the other.

For a moment, he didn't recognize them, until the smaller one flipped over the larger's back, bringing her body more fully into view as she buried one knee into a quite painful looking spot. Blinking, he saw the quite distinctive looking pigtail of his flight leader.

He leaned against the wall near the change room doors, watching the match curiously. It had nothing to do, of course, with the fact that Lt. Tendo was wearing a sweat drenched tank-top and a pair of loose shorts, no matter what his detractors may say.

Still, as he watched, he had to admit that the fighting moves on either side were almost as impressive as the show. The older man sent a brutal punch at Ranko, who dodged it by grabbing his arm and using the leverage to swing around, until he brought a knee up into her back and sent her sprawling away from him. Right before she hit the floor, she sprung off with her hands, her feet impacting his face with great force.

He staggered back slightly, one hand reaching up to rub at the bridge of his nose, and Dan inwardly marveled. The guy had to be made of iron to withstand that blow, and Ranko the same to deliver it. Abruptly, the fight stopped, Ranko somersaulting back to her feet and bowing to her opponent, though Dan could have sworn that the bow was mocking. Edging up to the two, now that the fight was over, he heard something that shocked him. "…we can't go all out when the ship's in fold space." Ranko was saying.

The older man nodded. "Yeah, but I think that'll do for now." He said, cracking his neck. "Got some of the extra energy out of my system, at least." Then, noticing Dan, he smirked. "Lt, I think we broke someone."

Ranko turned around, surprised as she saw her subordinate standing there and blinking at her. "Dan, you all right?" She asked, concerned at the shocked look on his face.

"Y… yes, Ma'am." He said, nodding. "I didn't know you were so good at fighting."

She shrugged, and he forcibly kept his eyes away from her chest. Given what he'd just seen, he really didn't want to piss her off. "Family school." She said, dismissively. "Ya here to train, or just work out?"

Noting that she seemed reasonably friendly and relaxed, which he found odd since she'd been acting kind of stressed lately, Dan spoke. "Just a workout, Ma'am."

"Yeah, good luck then." Ranko said, heading for the door to the women's change room. Oddly, before she entered, she called out "Is anyone in there?" Getting no response, she easily walked in, turning out of sight.

"Damn, she's cute." Dan muttered, after his superior had exited hearing range.

The man who had been fighting Ranko walked up to him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Bit of advice, kid." He said, smirking at him with a fang showing. Dan looked up at him, confused, so he continued. "I wouldn't go after her if I were you."

Dan blinked. "Is she, um, your girlfriend or something, um, sir?" He asked, suddenly nervous, and feeling that this guy was vaguely familiar.

Much to his discomfort, the man started laughing. "My… girlfriend…" He chuckled, starting to walk for the door. "I won't tell her you said that, but man… My girlfriend…"

Dan didn't quite know what was so funny, but shrugged it off as he headed for a treadmill.

HR.

Captain Lisa Hayes nodded in approval as she looked over the gleaming rows of Variable Fighters that were lined up in one of the Soryu's main storage hangers. This was her first full inspection of the ship since its launch, and she hadn't actually gotten to see much of the ARMDs. Oh, she knew all of their capabilities and armaments by heart, as any commanding officer should for a ship they were commanding, but actually physically getting down here hadn't been high on her priority list.

Beside her, the Soryu's auxiliary command officer, a competent seeming young man named Anderson, stood with its CAG, Lieutenant Commander Sisko. "Looks like four wings here." Lisa observed, nodding.

"Yes, Ma'am. Red squadron, Green squadron and two auxiliaries." Sisko nodded.

Lisa nodded as well, walking down the line of aircraft. Most of them were VF-4s, though the ones with a green dragon insignia on their tails were VF-11s. As she was about to turn around, she noticed a second insignia on the inner tail planes of the craft.

Focusing in on it, she noted that the image showed a red haired girl, who was apparently very annoyed at someone off-camera, standing in front of what looked like a giant, roaring red robot. The thing that caught her attention about the image, however, was the girl's hair, which was worn down her back in a short pigtail capped off with some sort of red hairclip.

Stepping forward, she studied the design. "Hmm, I don't recall ever seeing this symbol before." She muttered, and Commander Sisko started looking sheepish.

"Well, a couple of guys from Red Squadron approached me with the change, and I didn't see much of a problem… is there something wrong with the new patch, Ma'am?" The woman asked, nervously.

Lisa looked away from the image, shaking her head. "Nothing wrong, really. It just reminds me of someone." Noting their captain narrowing her eyes, both lower ranked officers wanted to run, for some reason.

HR.

A few hours later, Lisa was paging her way through the crew roster of the Soryu, most specifically pilots. What she'd seen was probably some random coincidence, but if living with Ranma for as long as she had had taught her anything it was not to trust that sort of explanation.

Still, she couldn't see anyone resembling her husband, in either normal or cursed form, in the group she was scrolling through. Hearing the door to her ready room slide open, she looked up to see Roy stroll in. He waited for the door to slide shut, and then spoke. "You need something, Lisa?"

She shook her head. "Roy, is being paranoid part of commanding a ship that I just didn't hear about?" She asked, causing him to raise an eyebrow. Shrugging, she swiveled her monitor around to display the Soryu's new patch.

"Oh, that thing." Roy said. "They ran it past me before implementing it. Really creepy resemblance, hmm?"

"Roy, it looks like they took a picture of his face and animated it." Lisa said, deadpan.

He shrugged, noncommittally. "Sounds almost like you're hoping he stowed away aboard." He said, then smirked. "Missing him that much already?"

Lisa's eyebrow twitched, and if Roy Fokker hadn't been one of her oldest friends in the RDF, he would have found himself reprimanded for that one. Instead, she shook her head. "Of course I miss him, but this does seem strange." She answered.

"Look, if it helps, the guy who brought me the image told me he got it off a girl from the Ayanami." Roy said. "I didn't bother going over it 'cuz, honestly, if the kid really did decide to stow away, I'm not going to stop him."

"It's a violation of the rules, and…" Lisa started, though she sounded unsure.

"And we've got one more pilot who's good enough to actually help in an attack and train up some green recruits." Roy returned, easily. "You know the kid should never have been held to that stupid no fly rule." Then, he shrugged. "And y'know, it could just be some random girl who looks a lot like him."

Lisa nodded, somewhat reluctantly. "I'm still going to go through these files." She said, flatly.

"And if he's there?" Roy asked, curiously.

"I'm going to yell at him… a lot… then," Lisa shook her head. "I've got no idea."

Roy nodded. "Well, at least let's give the kid a little reprieve if he's here. After all, we're dropping out of fold space soon, and you should probably be up there for that."

Lisa nodded. "Thanks, Roy."

"It's what I'm here for." He replied, turning and heading for the exit. Lisa smirked at that, and then closed her personal terminal, getting up and following him out.

HR.

In an area nearly 10 light years from earth, space started to ripple in an odd pattern. Lightning seemed to crackle around the edges of the new distortion, and then space was ripped in two as a massive shape shoved itself into existence where no mass had existed earlier.

For a moment, the Tiger's hull crackled with the discharge of its fold engines, before it all seemed to dissipate away, and the set of massive fusion engines at its rear activated, pushing it forward into its new sector.

"Ma'am, defold into normal space complete!" Announced an excited technician from the front of the ship's main Command and Control Center.

Lisa nodded, from where she sat in the chair in the middle of the room. "Did we make it through all right?" She asked.

"Yes, Ma'am. No damage reported." The crewman said, reading over his panel.

"Can we detect the REF's communications beacon?" Lisa asked, referring to one of several comm. relays that had once been laid down behind the expeditionary fleet to help them keep in contact with earth.

"No, Ma'am. All com Channels are clear." The communications officer on duty said, frowning. "Nothing but interstellar background out there."

"Damn." The captain muttered. "Our first jump, and we already have problems." Clearing her head of such worrying thoughts, she nodded. "All right, time to get to work. I want a reconnaissance team dispatched with FAST packs. Let's see if we can find that comm beacon."

HR.

Ranko luxuriated in the lack of a buzzing feeling at the back of her head as she walked down the hall from her quarters. Even if it hadn't been announced over the ship's intercoms, she would have known when the ship left fold space, as it left her much more at peace with the world.

Entering the orange squadron briefing room, she smiled at Dana and Dan, sliding into the seat next to the man. "Hey." She said, cheerfully.

"Hello, Ma'am." The two returned, and Dana looked at her oddly. "Are you having a good day today?"

Ranko nodded, knowing that her subordinate was trying to be friendly. "Just glad we finally got outta fold space." She said, off hand. "Where's the commander?"

Dan was about to shrug and say he didn't know, when commander Einburg walked in, looking somewhat annoyed.

Walking up to the screen at the front of the room, he tapped some buttons on it, revealing a sensor readout of the immediate area, before turning around. "Good afternoon, people." He started. "Seems we've got the short straw today." Seeing that his squadron didn't react, he continued. "We've been given reconnaissance patrol."

Ranko and Dan both groaned, causing confused looks from Dana and the twins. "We getting FAST packs, sir?" The redhead asked, annoyed.

"You got it, Tendo." Einburg returned. "To be specific, you and I are, and our flight members are going to act as escorts."

Ranko winced, but then shrugged. "Understood, sir."

"Our objective is to scout the sector and look for a transmitter the REF left here. Also, we're to see if there are any hostile forces around, but retreat to the ship if engaged." Einburg explained. "All of you got that?" At the group's nods, he smiled. "Good. Flight paths will be in your computers. Let's get going."

HR.

A few minutes later, Dana knew why Ranko and Dan had winced at the thought of the mission. Her machine wasn't actually handicapped very badly, with only a couple conformal bulges on her thruster pods that she believed to be extra fuel tanks, but Ranko's had some sort of huge installation on the back, just behind the cockpit, that would likely prevent it from transforming at all. Also, she noticed that the plane was the odd modified one that she'd seen damaged a week earlier.

"You got your bird fixed, Ma'am?" She asked, surprised.

Ranko shrugged. "Commander Hibiki's around, and he's pretty good at what he does."

"Hey, and what am I, chopped liver?" Asked a rather short man with dark brown hair.

Ranko smirked. "Fishin for compliments, Toshi?"

He shrugged. "FAST pack's secure and fully fueled. Also, the airframe's passed stress tests, so you should be good to go."

"Thanks." Ranko said, and proceeded towards her plane. Dana just shrugged, heading to her own. As far as she could tell, Dan had already gone ahead of the two of them.

HR.

A few minutes later, Dana sat in her machine, realizing what was about to happen. It had been odd, but even if she'd known it academically, she hadn't started feeling, until now, that she was really on a mission to find her parents. Now, though, she was actually part of a reconnaissance team that was trying to find something left behind by the REF.

"Hey, Dana, you all right?" Ranko asked, coming over her radio. "I'm getting a life support flag on your heart rate and breathing."

Dana shook her head. "Yeah… I'm fine, I'm just excited, is all."

From over her radio, she heard Ranko laugh. "A few hours looking over sensor readouts should clear that up real quick." The redhead answered. "Still, if yer not ready, I can tell the commander ta pull ya."

"No, no… it's fine." Dana said, shaking her head. Ranko didn't respond, but the closing of the comm channel was all the answer Dana needed, as her flight leader taxied up to the launch elevator in front of her. After Ranko had disappeared up to the flight deck, she quickly followed, taxiing into position on the catapult.

when Dana was in place and linked to the cat, and the three veritechs were launched in sequence, she felt the familiar sensation that she'd left her stomach back in the hanger, but smiled anyway. Her quest had finally begun.

END.

(Ami Mizuno and Misato Katsuragi are sun baithing on a beach.)

Ami:Ah, this is so relaxing.

Misato(Sighs): Yeah. Hmm, I wonder if Weebee's woken up yet?

Ami(Snorts):Let's just forget about him for a while, all right? After all, what's the worst that could happen?

(Scene change to Weebee's room. The author is sitting at his computer, typing shakily, and a very annoyed JRA is standing next to him.)

Weebee:Almost… done.

JRA:Why did I get recruited for this, again?

Weebee:You volunteered yourself. Not to mention, Misato's got a gun, and explained to me exactly why I shouldn't interrupt her downtime.

JRA: Damnit…


End file.
